Sensing and communication modules for, e.g., mobile phones and other mobile devices may provide location and context-aware information and services.
Low-power absorption, low latency and high accuracy may represent desirable features for a such modules.
Also, an ever increasing number of applications provide location and context features. For instance, the ability to discriminate user activity and user location may rely on the processing of “primitive” information provided by sensors “on-board” of an application device (e.g., a smart phone or a smart watch).
Processing may provide information on certain user activities such as travel mode (e.g., with the capability of sub-typing a pedestrian behavior as stationary, walking, fast walking, running, climbing or descending staircases, riding a bicycle, being conveyed on a vehicle, shopping, watching TV, sleeping, waking-up). Based on such information an application apparatus may propose tasks and/or provide various functions such as monitoring, alert or control functions.
An effective floor/altitude change detection scheme may provide environment information based on primitive data from a pressure/barometric sensor thus making it possible, e.g., to determine the location of a user and/or facilitate discriminating activity detection, possibly in combination with information derived from other sensors.
Additional activity information such as climbing or descending staircases, possibly in combination with calculated speed based on pressure/barometric data may be useful in alerting a user by possibly providing safety messages. Also, detection of floor/altitude changes, optionally in combination with staircase slope information and/or step counting may be used, e.g., in computing burned calories.
Despite the intensive innovation activity in that area, the need is still felt for improved solutions, especially as regards making a sensing device less sensitive to noise, including “environmental” noise: a mobile phone or a smart watch being affected by movements of the hands and the gait of the user may be exemplary of such sources of noise.